Causes.com
| 8.16.22
‘Forever Chemicals’ in Rainwater, Study Finds
Do you want your drinking water to be tested for PFAS?
What’s the story?
- A new study found that "forever chemicals" in rainwater often greatly exceed drinking water health advisory levels set forth by various environmental agencies. The study by Stockholm University reported that worldwide rainwater contains per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which are a hazard to global human health.
- The paper published by the American Chemical Society concludes that no place on earth is untouched by these chemicals and suggests that PFAS be restricted immediately.
- Rainwater exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime drinking water health advisory levels, the Environmental Quality Standard for Inland European Union Surface Water, and Danish drinking water limits. The water quality guidelines deem rainwater as now unsafe to drink.
- The U.S. guidelines for PFAS in drinking water were recently revised, drastically cutting the acceptable level of human exposure to the chemicals since scientists have a greater understanding of the toxicity of these chemicals and the threat they pose to the world. The lead author of the study, Ian Cousins, said in a press release:
“Based on the latest US guidelines for [PFAS] in drinking water, rainwater everywhere would be judged unsafe to drink. Although in the industrial world we don’t often drink rainwater, many people around the world expect it to be safe to drink and it supplies many of our drinking water sources.”
- The study also found that the chemicals continuously cycle through the atmosphere, and soil across the globe is “ubiquitously contaminated” with PFAS.
What are PFAS, and how do they get into the environment?
- PFAS are synthetic chemicals developed in the 1940s and became popular for their ability to repel water and oil and be temperature resistant. Manufacturers use PFAS in a variety of products like non-stick cookware and cosmetics.
- Through these products, PFAS traveled through wastewater and contaminated natural water, soil, and air. The chemicals have polluted the soil that grows agriculture worldwide, drinking water reservoirs, the globe’s atmosphere, and have even made their way into Arctic ice.
- PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they are long-lasting chemicals that break down slowly over time. These chemicals will be in the environment for years and years to come.
- While some states and businesses have made an effort to decrease PFAS, Cousins said in the study:
“They are not declining noticeably because of the high persistence of PFAS and their ability to cycle from the ocean back to the atmosphere.”
Health impacts of PFAS
- It is difficult to identify the long-term health impacts of exposure to PFAS. The new study, however, suggests that everyone on earth is at risk of exposure and unknown health effects.
- Studies have linked PFAS to a few health issues so far, including liver damage, women’s fertility, and pregnancy issues, gestational diabetes, certain cancers, and lower immune system response.
- According to Medical News Today, people should be aware of how PFAS may impact their overall health and take precautions to test their drinking water for the chemicals.
- Dr. Perry Elizabeth Sheffield of the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Centers network and Mount Sinai explained:
“While we think children, in particular, may be sensitive to negative health effects if exposed because they are still growing and developing, more information is needed.”
- Dr. Sheffield suggests people review the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Centers page on PFAS. Dr. Monique May of UnitedHealth Group suggests families ask their local water utility company for information about PFAS levels in the water supply if they are concerned. Other steps include requesting the water to be tested, investing in water filters, and seeking out expertise in environmental medicine.
What do you think? Do you want your drinking water to be tested for PFAS?
-Jamie Epstein
(Photo credit: iStock/kulkann)
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Our water is tested for PFA's and all of he measures are within normal limits.
I grew uo in Cleveland where ther was a lot of chemicals disposed of improperly. Like when the Cutahoga River caught fire and the storm sewers once blew up when I was a kid becuase some company was dumping chemicals into the storm sewers. As a kid, I found it all to be exciting and did not realize the hazards. All of that has been cleaned up. The potable water came from the 5 mile dyke in Lake Erie and as far as I know it was always still pretty clean.
Like most things PFA's and other chemicals, micro plastics and other chemicals from detergents and industrial processes need to be thought about in-scale.
The world is a finite place and can only hide away so much of the waste products from things that people use in large volumes. We all need a shift in perspective to see the issues with anything that we do in large scale to anticipate and thwart unintended consequences before they can do harm to the planet and the living things depend upon an uncontaminated earth.
Less short term thinking, more long term perspective!
Is it surprising that when we dump toxic chemicals into the air, they fall back down to earth?
We need to vote for those who support clean water and clean air. That's not going to be those who are beholden to the oil and coal industries. Make candidates say which side of an issue they are on, and then hold them to it. If they don't, kick them out, if they've waffled kick them out.
Our Truckee Meadows Water Authority does a great job with our drinking water. So I am not worried. But that is only our town. I am concerned where our Supreme Court has taken some power away from EPA allowing municipalities to fo go correcting their drinking water systems. This bothers me. We are more interested in subsidizing Green Manufactures rather than helping our infrastructures.
I might have it tested if there is something I can do about it. Otherwise, why bother?
Recently had this discussion with neighbors as we wanted to have our building water supply tested but haven't heard back from our management company.
In previous states I've lived in I have always tested the water before using it but there are no labs nearby so I just order some test kits to test it myself as I plan on testing both the tap water & various bottled water brands I use.
I did check the water company website that services our county and the neighboring one and found they publish quarterly reports of water testing.
Please note that they can not be filtered out through water treatment processes or filtration systems.
From the website:
(1) Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl (PFAs) are man made chemicals developed to be resistant to fire, oil, grease, water, stains that are found in a wide range of consumer and industrial products, including non-stick cookware, stain repellants, dental floss, cleaning products and cosmetics.
(2) The chemicals are discharged from PFAS manufacturing and processing facilities or high use facilities (airports, military installations, etc).
(3) Once they enter the environment and source water, PFAS compounds cannot be removed by the water treatment process.
(4) Our state says there are few sites in state, and are upstream of drinking water sources.
(5) The EPA does not regulate PFAS compounds but maintains a health advisory which is the only federal standard of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for two of the most common compounds: PFOA and PFOS which is one drop of water in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
(6) In 2020 testing resumed of my county (and the neighboring county) filtration plants which identified 2 compounds (Perfluorohexanoic acid and Perfluorooctanoic acid) at levels barely above the minimum reporting level of 1.8 parts per trillion - well below the EPA's health advisory level of 70 ppt.
(7) Quarterly reports have been posted to the water company website serving our county and the neighboring county going back to 2013.
Drinking water should be free from PFAS and anything toxic to humans or animals who consume it.
Some states have already taken actions to ban PFAS. I would like to see my state/nation do the same.
https://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas-state-laws.aspx
Our water system has about two dozen water faucets as test station around town. They test the water every month. I don't know anyone in town that drinks that rain water but do know two people that collect it to water the garden and to put in the bird baths.
If these are forever chemicals and they are already in the rivers and lakes and in the soil and now in the air even if we stop all of the PFAS's we will all have cancer and die befouling can remove it from our environment. So what's the use.
It's apparently never going to rain again in the Southwest, so I guess we dodged that bullet, huh?
PFAs have been linked to endocrine disruption, mental health issues, and other diseases and concerns. I urge local communities and counties to start testing for PFAs and filter them out to minimum amounts. Low exposures over time add up. Do it for the health and wellbeing of others.
why do we have a govenment, if it does nothing to protect the citizen from corporate polluters. Are we the United Corporations of America? if we are just on ower own to deal with the climate dissaster, pollution, and poisons in our water and air? If it won't house you, feed you, educate you, why have a country?
Stop using the chemicals
My community has been testing for three decades because it was a steel town, and it has always failed. They proudly claim that while it fails, the water here is a bit better every year. (Am I the only one that finds that terrifying?)
Pollution needs to be managed better.
YES!!!
The city of 50,000 near where I live has allowed it's fire department (and surrounding township fire departments) to use the airport property as a practice area. They used foam in many of their practice sessions on that property. In 2019 the city and one of the townships detected PFAS chemicals in wells serving both the city, the township, and private wells in the area. PFAS chemicals had also leached into the groundwater. The contamination was traced to the chemicals in the foam being used by the Fire Department. Aall of the wells serving that portion of the city, the township, and the affected private property have been shutdown, and the people affected are now using bottled water exclusively. In addiition, the local fire departments have suspended all practice with foam, including at the airport eventhough its use at airports is required by Federal regulation.
There is essentially no safe level of PFAS contamination. The fact that it is now detected in rainwater underscores the extent to which we have damaged and polluted our planet in the name of profit and convenience. Rremoving PFAS from drinking water is extrremely difficult and most home filtering systems only remove 30%-70% of PFAS chemicals found in most drinking water. In general, PFOS and PFOA resist most conventional chemical and microbial treatment technologies. The strongest proven technologies to filter PFAS out of drinking water include granular activated carbon absorption, ion exchange resins and reverse osmosis.
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-new-drinking-water-health-advisories-pfas-chemicals-1-billion-bipartisan
https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/PFAS_FactSheet.html
https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2022/4/feature/3-feature-pfas-water-filter/index.htm
To Whom It May Concern:
It is preferable to wish that all of us could live a life without doubt and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, that is not the life we have. I continue to hope that in time we will be able to respect the information that we are fed.
Our water is in peril and it behoves us to remember just what is important and not what is expedient.
Keep in mind that just our health is not all that matters, what we leave behind will be judged and found wanting.
Why the hell would anyone say "no" to this? We deserve to know if we're being slowly poisoned or not.
We need to treat our planet better, and therefore treat our HEALTH better. End our use of single use plastic.
CAUSES ASKS: "Do you want your drinking water to be tested for PFAS?" ME: The problem is more than just testing the water; apparently it's much more about the standards and the technical ability to test at a significant level, which should be of concern to everyone.
The following from the Denver Post, August 17 about the city in which I live "...Testing equipment also often isn’t sensitive enough to detect such small, but still potentially dangerous, traces of PFAS, Timothy Strathmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, said. While tests in the past two years didn’t detect any PFAS in ___________ water, spokeswoman _________ noted that the utility is “not aware of testing technology that allows for accurate testing below 2.0 parts per trillion.” That’s still 500 times higher than the EPA’s health advisory level for PFOA and 100 times higher for PFOS. ____________ is “awaiting further guidance” from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on how to better test their water, Jordan said.:
:
We need to treat our planet better, and therefore treat our HEALTH better. End our use of single use plastic.
That is what testing is for,
I want the government out of my bedroom, out of my vagina, out of my home, office and schools. Government has way overstepped their bounds
maybe evaluate the effect of collective stupidity who believe Democrat lies-whoops I mean changing definitions e.g. recession
Hitler's "big lie" proram, if you say it enough, people come to believe you. especially the "mail in voters:
This is a global catastrophe and requires immediate attention.
Re: PFAS IN NYS–While the problem has not been solved, at least it is being addressed. As awareness increases concrete action will be taken.
New Bill to Restrict Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' Could Help Heal Hudson Valley Water Supply - Gothamist
https://gothamist.com/news/new-bill-restrict-toxic-forever-chemicals-could-help-heal-hudson-valley-water-supply
(this is the most current article I could find using a "quick search."
We need to recycle plastic, and reduce some of the use of plastic! Packaging use of plastic needs to be reduced by at least 50 percent!
Public water is monitored regularly here, but groundwater remains affected by a decades-ago nuclear accident. Lots of weird cancers in this community, also affecting children.
I drink and cook with distilled water only.